Jeff's language log

[jeff_lindqvist]

2019 - Summary of week 25

IT: Another eight chapters of L'italiano secondo il metodo natura.

NO: Yes. Norwegian. Nrk.no has a lot of interesting content. I listened to one radio drama (crime) and started another. Both featured a variety of accents (I could identify four).

PL: FSI - lesson 3. A few MrPolish videos. First Year - 1.C.1. Co to jest? + 1.C.2. Kto to jest?(skimming the lessons). The ERIC file - lesson 3 (reading aloud, skimming the grammar notes).

One day, I had an short conversation in Swedish/English with a quadrilingual bus driver. Two hours later, I was among code-switchers and had my first Russian conversation in years. Today I heard Danish, German and Chinese in the same park. All on my island, in the middle of nowhere.

I watched Inferno (the movie based on Dan Brown's book with the same name) and noticed that it had additional audio tracks: Czech, Hungarian, Polish and Russian. Interestingly enough, the Polish audio track kept the English voices (however, at a lower volume), and during my sample, it was the same (male) voice for Robert Langdon and Sienna Brooks. No, I won't watch it in Polish.

[DaveAgain]

I was flicking through a whodunnit earlier (The Pale Horse, ISBN: 9780755377473), and it mentioned an irish martial art called troid-sciathagid.

It's fictional, but on the author's website he mentions some source texts that I thought might interest you.

[jeff_lindqvist]

Thanks Dave, I'll have a look!

[iguanamon]

IT: Another eight chapters of L'italiano secondo il metodo natura.

I read the first two chapters and listened to the audio on youtube. I like that it's monolingual Italian. It looks to me to be a course that would solidly teach the basics. Obviously, the lack of audio is a hindrance, but could be compensated for by using another resource with audio. How do you like the course, so far, Jeff?

By the way, there's a follow-up to the course called "Introduzione alla letteratura Italiana" with the same picture and word gloss to the side, by the same authors. It has an accompanying glossary with explanations "Introduzione alla letteratura italiana- Parole e frasi (Spiegazione di paròle e frasi nuòve)".

[jeff_lindqvist]

I read the first two chapters and listened to the audio on youtube. I like that it's monolingual Italian. It looks to me to be a course that would solidly teach the basics. Obviously, the lack of audio is a hindrance, but could be compensated for by using another resource with audio. How do you like the course, so far, Jeff?

By the way, there's a follow-up to the course called "Introduzione alla letteratura Italiana" with the same picture and word gloss to the side, by the same authors. It has an accompanying glossary with explanations "Introduzione alla letteratura italiana- Parole e frasi (Spiegazione di paròle e frasi nuòve)".

Thanks for stopping by, Iguanamon! I think I listened to a snippet of the youtube recording at some point (last year). I know what Italian sounds like, so I read the lessons aloud and that will have to do for now. At the rate of one lesson per day, I have two weeks left. Then I'll do something else in the language - maybe go back to News in Slow Italian, or even try an audiobook. Or the bilingual book I got at PG 2016. Maybe I'll have a look at the follow-up course you mentioned.

As for the course itself, I suppose it's like the other Nature Method material out there. Easy lessons at first, then gradually more difficult as new vocabulary and grammar is introduced. Decent coverage of verb tenses (comparable to Spanish present, preterite, imperfect, perfect... possibly more).

[iguanamon]

Molto bene, Jeff! The course looks like it does get much more complex the further along you get in the book. With 50 chapters and 756 pages (lessons starting on page 9, in my pdf- app 200 words per page) it looks to be quite thorough. It seems to me that a learner with a background in two or more Romance languages should be able to progress nicely through the course. I may give it a go myself once I'm satisfied with my Catalan. I love the idea of using a 50+ year old, vintage, monolingual course. It probably wouldn't be such a good course for a monolingual beginner though.

...I know what Italian sounds like, so I read the lessons aloud and that will have to do for now. ...

That's pretty much what I did with the DLI Haitian Creole Basic Course, since the audio was mostly unusable. It didn't hurt me at all because, same as you with Italian, I knew what HC sounded like.

Thanks, Jeff. I'd be very interested to read your review of the course when you finish it.

[jeff_lindqvist]

2019 - Summary of week 26

DE: I visited Sprachheld's channel and watched one interview with Elisa (~46 min) and another with Luca (~26 min).

IT: Another seven chapters of L'italiano secondo il metodo natura. The chapters I read this week were longer, and at one point I decided that time was up.

NO: I finished the other radio drama, started (and finished) a five-part documentary, and eventually found a podcast with 90-minute episodes.

PL: FSI - lesson 4. A few more videos. Those are ~30 seconds long so I watch each a couple of times - translation is included below the video. First Year - 1.D. Dobrze wyglądasz + 1.E. Autobus. The ERIC file - lesson 4. I always start the week with FSI, then either videos or First Year. Always the ERIC file on Sundays. This seems to be a good order.

Today I got a notification fom Amikumu. Two polyglots will be in my town next weekend.

[cjareck]

Today I got a notification fom Amikumu.

I installed it but unfortunately, it seems I live in a black hole The closest people are 250 km from me and it is most probably Warsaw. But this app surely has a potential and maybe in the future will be more useful for me.

[jeff_lindqvist]

I installed it but unfortunately, it seems I live in a black hole The closest people are 250 km from me and it is most probably Warsaw. But this app surely has a potential and maybe in the future will be more useful for me.

Off season, say September to May, the closest is 100 km from me, regardless of language. Different results if I'm travelling. The ones I chat with are mostly people I've met during Polyglot Gatherings.

[jeff_lindqvist]

2019 - Summary of week 27

IT: Another batch of lessons done. Today (Sunday) I didn't read aloud, and instead blazed through chapter 39-42. Italian looks almost as familiar as Spanish now.

NO: I listened to podcast interviews, some longer than others.

PL: FSI - lesson 5. Kim ona jest 1-8 plus the "Rules" series. First Year - 2.A. Warszawa, Kraków. The ERIC file - lesson 5.

Not a lot done this week.